Barcelona maintain La Liga lead with Elche victory

The Catalan side, who have qualified for the Champions League round of 16, unlike the capital club who will play in the play-offs for the second consecutive season, increased their tally to 55 points ahead of Real Madrid’s match against visiting Rayo Vallecano on Sunday. Barcelona also recorded their fourth successive win in all competitions and their 13th victory in 14 meetings with Elche, with one draw dating back to 2014.

Match action and goals

Lamine Yamal needed only six minutes to open the scoring, receiving a long pass from Dani Olmo and finishing from close range past Barcelona’s on-loan goalkeeper Iñaki Peña.

However, Álvaro Rodríguez broke Barcelona’s high offside line and went one-on-one with goalkeeper Joan García, placing the ball to his left to equalise in the 29th minute.

Ferran Torres came close to adding a second for Barcelona, but his close-range effort struck the crossbar and then the left post off his head in the 32nd minute. He eventually found the net after fine work from Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong, who dribbled past the goalkeeper and defenders before passing to Torres to score in the 40th minute.

Brazilian Raphinha missed a chance to make it three in the 43rd minute, as did Fermín López just before half-time.

In the second half, Barcelona nearly conceded an equaliser when Moroccan substitute Adam Bouyiar missed a clear opportunity in front of goal in the 63rd minute. He was punished when English substitute Marcus Rashford scored Barcelona’s third following a counter-attack led by Yamal. His cross deflected off the defence and fell kindly to the Manchester United loanee, who calmly slotted the ball into the net in the 72nd minute.